How many avy related incidents??? Poll

[Trackhead]

I just want to see honest responses for those of you who tour a fair amount just how many incidents you have been involved in directly the past two seasons.

Incidents meaning avies that caught you off guard and perhaps got your heart rate up a little high. For example:
1. Ski cuts gone bad, with perhaps a skier getting carried.
2. Skiing out of a big slide.
3. Nearly getting washed over a cliff from a slide, no matter the size.

[Crinkle]

TH, those numbers might go up considerably if you include a sluff-slides

[Tri-Ungulate]

http://tetongravity.com/forums/showthread.php?t=61080

[kidwoo]

You mentioned touring but the only two slides I've triggered and one I've seen another skier trigger have been in ski areas. You want that too?

Nothing in the bc barring wetslides.

[Ermine]

Safe, no problemas (all intentional slides triggered)...for what close to 5 years now? I was re-reading Tremper's book last night, the last chapter on Human Factors. There's a graph in there, like a EKG monitor that shows your confidence in avalanche skills (I'm not a pro). I'm somewhere near that 15-20 year mark. My confidence is sure to drop again at somepoint.

[Trackhead]

TH, those numbers might go up considerably if you include a sluff-slides

Sluffs can drag you over cliffs. If you felt it was an out of control situation for your personal ability and situation, then yes.

A friend of mine started a wet slide last year (small, relatively insignificant), but it almost pulled him over a 100+ foot cliff. That would have killed him on sight. So yes, that was a significant incident.

[Jer]

Soo many gnarliemans heer. Vee must pahmp yoo Ahp!

[Ermine]

Soo many gnarliemans heer. Vee must pahmp yoo Ahp!

Well, it's pretty simple. When it's spicy out there you either hit the low angle stuff that's not threatened from above or you just "tour"...turns are secondary and you trigger slides from ridgelines.

The third option is the A McC method: Trigger the chute and ski the bedsurface...and trigger a slide on the apron...

Spring...get an alpine start (overnight freeze assumed) and be drinking beer back at the truck/pub by noonish.

Maybe not all simple...

[TurxSki]

Do bits of cornice you knocked off, that follow you down and almost take you out count ?

Well then there were those two I triggered at Northstar, I was outside the boundaries, 'cos I'm like, so core...



No, seriously...sort of

[powstash]

3. Nearly getting washed over a cliff from a slide, no matter the size.

I forgot about that one...<shamefully raises his hand>

[rideit]

Sadly, all of the above.
Lessons learned over time, one can hope.
I have lost nine friends to avies over the course of fifteen years.

[Zeedashbo]

all the above. no deaths, thank god. 1 injury. me getting rattled more than a few times. shit, we even had an avalanchy day in the trees last year.

[BigDumbRedhead]

Sadly, all of the above.
Lessons learned over time, one can hope.
I have lost nine friends to avies over the course of fifteen years.

Wow! That's pretty rough. Have you been a Teton loc the whole time? That's a spooky snowpack sometimes. I've had buddies get slid to the ground in April down there. Not that it's more stable up here in SW MT. Stayin humble is in everybody's best intrest.

[DanKo]

I checked "no incidents", but my friends in Steamboat lost someone very close to them in the Soda Mtn/Buffalo Pass Avy 2 seasons back. Super sad. Under the snow for only ~6 minutes...

I've entered the BC in very small increments due in part to this.

[corn dog]

Last memorial day weekend I triggered a small wind slab on top of old ice. It carried me a short way down the hill and I hit a rock hard enough to put a small crack in my shoulder blade. I stopped paying close attention to obviously bad conditions, in part because the terrain was small.
The upside is that, before, although I might in my head recognize various warning signs it was still too much of academic excercise. Now I "feel it my gut", as a friend put it.

[gramps]

I startled myself by setting something off with a stomp while touring solo once, but I was safe on the ridge, so I don't think that counts. I've watched two partners take rides in the last two seasons, scary both times.

[Shredgar]

Does trundling cornices count?

[Trackhead]

Does trundling cornices count?

This thread was meant for times when you feel you made a judgement error that could have affected your safety.

[ak_powder_monkey]

I just hope a sledneck doesn't die this weekend here 15" new on 12 inches of facets/ surface hoar + taku winds tonight (50-100 mph) + first time people can ski ride, and snowmobile = loaded gun

[truth]

What about an avalanche of injuries?

[leroy jenkins]

Ok, so far the numbers from this shit are fucking scary.
I expected far more % of votes for the last option.

[0BernhardFranz]

nice slides gotta be the slides i saw in lech all did take 60 cm trees along and lay many meters high - don´t mess with size of slide at all

[Trackhead]

Ok, so far the numbers from this shit are fucking scary.
I expected far more % of votes for the last option.

That's the point.

[AKturnanburn]

That's the point.

one major detail missing in the first option is the general size or class of the slide. I unintentionally triggered a big sympathetic release last season and had a medium to small slab blow out on me last week. I was not in much danger in either situation, but they still apply.

[H-man]

Nice Poll D. I have not had any experiences in the last two years, other than seeing a lot of activity and coming upon other groups that have been caught and already self rescued. All of this was in Austria.

I was involved in a very small slide back in February of 1990. Three people had dropped the run before me and when I went it released and caused me to fall to my side. My skis were still pointing down the fall line. I felt the snow piling up on my back and starting to fold me at the waist. I rolled onto the bases of my skis and sat on the tails so that the snow pushed me in front of it rather than burying me. This was a very small release mind you. A bunch of people got buried, hurt and killed in St. Anton that winter. I new nothing about avalanches and was just starting to ski off-piste. It was that winter, and specifically that incident that made me realize that I needed to learn about them if I was going to keep skiing out of bounds. Since then, I have a clean slate.

Thats my experience for what its worth.